Sophie's Heart
by divine one
Summary: He saved her, but not before she was broken... Her broken pieces were sharp and jagged, cutting at him as he tried to help her put them back together. But when they were done with putting all those pieces - new and old - back together, would they recognize what was left? Eliot/Sophie. Triggers - Rape/Violence


Quietly opening the door he gave the room a cursory scan – no threats - before focusing on the woman on the bed. "Guys, I found her."

He moved towards the bed hoping he hadn't gotten there too late. One of her eyes was blackened and swollen and her jaw was bruised. Tightening his own jaw, he let his eyes scan and categorize the various bruises and lacerations that covered the rest of her naked body.

_Eliot? _Nate's voice crackled over the earpiece.

"Just a second."

He reached his hand out to Sophie's neck, hoping he'd get a pulse. When she - even half conscious - flinched beneath his touch, he didn't know whether to crow or cry. "She's alive... but you're gonna need to get one of those doctors who owes us a favor to meet me at St. Luke's."

_How bad is she?_

He snorted as he grabbed the edges of the sheet that lay on the bed and pulled it up to cover and wrap around Sophie's figure. As he bent down to pick her up he muttered a one word response, "Bad."

(())

He gritted his teeth as Sophie struggled against him as he lifted her up. Her pushes were weak and ineffective, so the clenching of his jaw wasn't caused by discomfort, it was caused by anger. Anger at the men who had done this to her. The men who had harmed her.

"It's alright Soph, darlin' it's me. I've got you."

His jaw tightened even more when Sophie stopped struggling and gave a mewl of… pain/surrender – and used the arm that wasn't trapped against his body, to grasp on to him, until she was clinging to the flannel of his shirt.

(())

The fluorescent lights in the hospital waiting room hurt his eyes. The noise of the television mounted in the corner, the people sitting and milling around him – grated at his nerves. The Emergency room staff had taken Sophie back and he had a clipboard with a shitload of forms to fill out laying in his hands. He filled in most of the sections from memory, his mental files on his team mates were small, but detailed. Name, dob, address, phone, social security number... He muttered a question quietly for Alec - "Is she on any meds?"

"Just a sec," Hardison was quiet as he electronically, tapped his way into Sophie's life, "Uhm, just the pill, uh, Orthocyclen." He paused then asked what everyone on the team wanted to know, "Man, is she okay?"

As he filled out the rest of the information asked for on the forms, he responded with a composure he wasn't really feeling. "They just took her back a few minutes ago. I don't know." He added, in an attempt to calm all of them, including himself, "She'll be fine. This is Sophie we're talking about."

_Yeah, this is Sophie they were talking about._

"What's her insurance coverage number?"

Hardison spouted it out rapidly – having his full dossier on Sophie on hand now.

He looked at the last question on the form, "Nate, Parker, how far away are you?"

"Ten maybe fifteen minutes. Hardison, any help getting around this construction – alternate – routes?"

"I'm good, but even I can't beat the construction gods." Hardison quipped, then seemingly remembering the reason for Nate's request – Sophie – he soberly added, "I'll see if I can map any other routes for you."

He listened to Hardison and Nate with as he eyed the paperwork and made his decision. He paused before speaking again: "Nate, I'm gonna to need a man's ring." Under EMERGENCY CONTACT he wrote in: Eliot Spencer and under RELATIONSHIP he added: Fiance.

(())

He was seated - leg bouncing restlessly - in the spectacularly uncomfortable plastic and metal chairs, beneath the too-white lights, in the too-noisy, too-crowded Emergency waiting room when Nate and Parker finally arrived.

"Anything?" Nate asked hopefully, even though none of them had taken out their comms since Sophie went off line thirteen hours ago.

He shook his head negatively.

Nate ran his hand over his jaw and settled heavily into the chair next to him; Parker looked at the two of them briefly before heading off to the corner where the vending machines stood.

Nate pulled something out of his pocket and quietly offered it to him.

_A man's wedding ring._

He silently accepted it, sliding it on to the ring finger of his left hand.

"Wrote in I was her fiance."

"Fine. I'll be her... brother."

They were both staring straight ahead, apparently looking at nothing, but realistically, they were taking in everything that was going on around them.

"Parker's going for the sugar; gonna be bouncing off the walls in a few minutes."

Nate looked over at Parker and sighing, he pushed up from his chair. "Well we definitely can't have that, now can we?"

(())

"Sophie Devereaux?"

He stood up and nodded his head, drawing the doctor's attention. She stepped into the waiting room, closing the distance between them and then she extended her hand as she spared a glance at Nate, and then at Parker - who sat next to Nate, her feet propped up in a chair as she tensely munched on some of the vending machine treats that she'd refused to relinquish.

"Dr. Logwith," she glanced down at her clipboard, "It says you're Ms. Devereaux's fiance?"

He impatiently nodded his head in agreement, "How is she?"

The doctor glanced at Nate and Parker again.

He curtly offered, "Her brother Nate, and his wife, Parker." Ignoring the sudden coughing fit that escaped Parker, he pressed again, "How is she?"

Dr. Logwith lowered her voice, "We addressed as many of the immediate concerns as we could, but she's suffered a fairly extensive catalog of injuries; a blackened eye, bruised jaw, two broken ribs, a broken arm... and, she...she was raped," she paused... then continued, "we've sedated her - for the pain - and she gave us permission to pull a rape kit. The police should be here soon to speak with her, and I'd assume, with you, regarding what exactly happened to her." Dr. Logwith pulled her eyes from her clipboard and made eye contact with them again, "As I said, we have sedated her, but she's awake and I can let you in, one at a time, to sit with her, in just a few minutes."

The tightness was back in his jaw, but he nodded his head in understanding.

Sophie was alive.

Broken, but alive.

And he was going to kill the people who had hurt her.


End file.
